Jack Casey was looking for a place in downtown Troy near the courthouse where he could both live and keep an office. He didn't expect the stately beauty that is 47 Second St., but once he saw it, he couldn't let it go.

Casey, 63, grew up near St. Mary's Hospital and although he has lived other places in the country and the region, he jumped at the opportunity to return to his hometown and live near the Hudson River. He remembers taking drawing lessons at the Rensselaer County Historical Society, also on Second Street. As a teen, he roadied for a band that played at the fraternity next door, Pi Kappa Phi.

Now a lawyer, songwriter, author, playwright and the former parliamentarian of the state Senate, Casey bought the house in 2006 for $400,000.

The red brick Victorian townhouse is near the intersection of Second and State streets. A bay window supported by stone brackets hangs over a pair of wooden doors, and the facade is embellished with several decorative touches. It was built in the 1820s in the heart of the bustling river city and for many years served as a rental property for its various owners. It was expanded and renovated between 1888 and 1903, when the house took on ornamental details that are the hallmark of architect Charles Eastlake's influence.

From the outside, the house is overwhelmed by the fraternity house to its right, a grand building built in the 1890s that was once a private home. During pledge week, Casey can hear the fraternity brothers on the other side of their shared wall, pounding up and down the stairs. Casey said the proximity to the fraternity took some getting used to, but he has since made friends with the members.

Behind the facade of Casey's home there are several surprises. Some are his doing and others the result of preservation by other owners throughout its nearly two-century existence.

The most impressive surprise are the horse stalls on the second floor of the carriage house behind the house. While the carriage itself was parked on the first floor, the horses that pulled it lived upstairs. They reached their quarters by a ramp carpeted with firehoses for traction. The 9-by-10 stalls still bear the names of the horses who last lived there, Marie Correlli, Bell Moor and Jessie. The wood-paneled stalls are topped with wrought iron lattice and outfitted with mangers filled from chutes on the floor above. An old fashioned oat cleaner still hangs on the wall next to a tight-as-a-corkscrew spiral staircase to the third floor where the horses' caretaker slept.

"There are other carriage houses in Troy, but nothing like this. The fact it is completely intact sets it apart," said Kathryn Sheehan, the Rensselaer County historian and registrar.

Casey enjoys the stables, but they remain empty while he decides what to do with the space. Scenes from the film "The Age of Innocence" were shot in the castle next door; a location scout might find the stables for another period piece, he said.

The living space at 47 Second St. has consistently been divided into office and living space. The previous owner, William Brower, bought the property in 1970 after it had been vacant for two years, according to a history Casey received when he bought the house. Brower restored the home, installed modern mechanical and electrical systems and raised a family there, all while renting out the office on the first floor Casey uses for his law practice. Brower also created a basement apartment, which Casey rents out.

The Eastlake influence is apparent in the details of the office space — parquet floors Casey had refinished, a frieze of gold filigree near the top of the 13-foot ceilings, carved wooden screens in the doorways and ornate crown molding.

Casey's decorating style is eclectic. The artwork on display ranges from period appropriate to modern, blended liberally with photographs of his two grown children. Casey painted several of the rooms himself, but turned over a first-floor study to mural artist and Troy resident Paul Bouchey. The Hudson River appeared under Bouchey's skilled hand, along with several of the landmarks that grace the river's edge; Olana, the Clermont mansion, Washington Irving's Sunnyside estate and Troy's riverfront with a steamboat at the dock.

Bouchey also painted a mural in the second floor living room, another river scene done in the artist Thomas Cole's landscape style.

Casey likes hiring local people. Another Trojan, Laura Madia, designed all the window treatments in the house.

A small, simple room off the formal living room is where Casey writes, often in the middle of the night. He has written four books, all historical novels set in the Mohawk-Hudson river corridor with themes of politics and social change. The walls are covered with scene descriptions for Casey's play, "The Trial of Bat Shea."

Casey's next project for the house is to restore the fireplaces and chimneys, currently capped.